90 BULLETIN 135^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



But this was not its only method of concealment, as was shown a few min- 

 utes later. I parted the flags directly in front of the bird, to see how close an 

 approach it would permit. My hands came within 12 inches of it before it 

 melted away over the back of the nest. Its movements were apparently very 

 deliberate, and yet almost instantaneously it disappeared into the flags. It did 

 not go far, and in a very few minutes it came back. Very slowly it pushed its 

 vertical neck and upturned bill between the flags until it just fitted the space 

 between two of the upright stalks at the back of the nest. No longer were the 

 feathers drawn closely to the neck, which was at this time the only part visible. 

 Instead, they were shaken out to their fullest expanse, and hung square across 

 the base, instead of pointed. The dark feathers arranged themselves into 

 stripes, and simulated well the shadows between the flags. Again I moved 

 around the nest, and this time, instead of remaining motionless, the bird also 

 rotated so as always to present its striped front to me and conceal its body. 

 This was evidently a second and entirely different stratagem. 



The same careful observer says of the notes of the male: 



His notes were guttural and dovelike, or even froglike when heard in the distance, 

 resembling the syllables, uh-iih-uh-oo-oo-oo-oo-oooah, similar to one of the calls of 

 the pied-billed grebe. The call, when given close at hand, often drew a response 

 from the female of two or three short notes, like the syllables uk-uk-uk. 



Docter Chapman (1900) describes the notes of the least bittern as: 

 "A soft, low coo, slowly repeated five or six times, and which is prob- 

 ably the love song of the male; an explosive alarm note, quoh; a 

 hissing hah, with which the bird threatens a disturber of its nest; and 

 a low tut-tut-tut, apparently a protest against the same kind of intru- 

 sion." 



William Brewster (1902) writes: 



Nor do we often hear its voice save during a brief period at the height of the 

 breeding season when the male, concealed among the rank vegetation of his 

 secure retreats, utters a succession of low, cooing sounds varying somewhat in 

 number as well as in form with different birds or even with the same individual 

 at different times. The commoner variations are as follows: Coo, hoo-hoo-hoo (the 

 first and last syllables slightly and about evenly accented), coo-coo, coo-hoo-hoo 

 (with distinct emphasis on the last syllable only), co-co-co-co, co-co-ho-ho or co- 

 ho-ho (all without special emphasis on any particular syllable). These notes are 

 uttered chiefly in the early morning and late afternoon, usually at rather infre- 

 quent intervals but sometimes every four or five seconds for many minutes at a 

 time. When heard at a distance they have a soft, cuckoolike quality; nearer 

 the bird's voice sounds harder and more like that of the domestic pigeon, while 

 very close at hand it is almost disagreeably hoarse and raucous as well as hollow 

 and somewhat vibrant in tone. Besides this cooing the least bittern occasion- 

 ally emits, when startled a loud, cackling ca-ca-ca-ca. 



Enemies — Young least bitterns have many enemies, birds of prey 

 and crows overhead, predatory animals prowling through the marshes 

 and crawling reptiles in the mud and water. From these enemies 

 the young birds are partially successful in escaping by their ability 

 in climbing and hiding among the reeds. Crows undoubtedly destroy 

 a great many eggs and even the diminutive long-billed marsh wren 

 punctures the eggs, perhaps maliciously. Doctor Chapman (1900) 



